Red Bull 'desperate' to close engine gap - Horner

Red Bull boss Christian Horner has been discussing his team's targets for the 2018 campaign, and has commented that his team are 'desperate' to close the gap to Mercedes in the engine department next season to ensure they remain competitive with the leading constructors.

Mercedes were once again the dominant force in F1 in the 2017, collecting the constructor's championship as well as Lewis Hamilton winning the title, while Valtteri Bottas came third in the driver's standings.

There has been much speculation over what the proposed engine changes from Liberty Media in the 2018 campaign will bring to the competitiveness of the sport, and Horner stressed that it is important that the rest of the teams, including his, can make up the ground to Mercedes in the close season.

He said: "Reliability is a key issue next year, but it is also about maintaining the chassis development that we have had during the second half of the year, and we need desperately the engine to concertina in performance.

“Brazil is power sensitive, and in Abu Dhabi you could see Mercedes were in a class of their own. If you listened to their radio content, when they turn their engines up, you only had to look at the middle sector, they would go half a second quicker or slower depending on what engine mode they choose.

"Hats off to them. They are doing a great job in that area, but engine performance is a key differentiator.”

Horner also added that Red Bull needs to improve its reliability to ensure that Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo have the best possible chance to compete at each circuit.

He added: "Reliability-wise we have DNFed in far too many races. The RB13 has had 13 podiums and 13 DNFs, so we are looking forward to getting onto RB14!

“Reliability has cost us dear this year. If you assume that each of those DNFs averages between 10 and 12 points, you don’t have to be a mathematics professor to work out how costly that has been for us.”